Billionaire sets up fund for victims of climate change

SAN FRANCISCO -- Billionaire Tom Steyer, the leading financial underwriter of campaigns to combat climate change, says he is putting up $2 million to start a fund for victims of wildfires and other "extreme weather events."

Steyer and his wife, Kat Taylor, are announcing the establishment of the Climate Disaster Relief Fund on Friday. They said the fund, managed by the San Francisco Foundation, will provide grants to organizations serving the victims of "climate-related disasters" in the United States, starting with wildfires in the West states during the last year.

While the causes of wildfires vary, Steyer said it's becoming clear that they're getting worse because of higher temperatures and the droughts and infestations of insects that follow. According to the National Climate Assessment released last month by the government-sponsored U.S. Global Change Research Program, he said, climate change could cause a doubling of burned areas in the Rockies and a 74 percent increase in California.

"Climate change is the defining issue of our generation, and we can no longer afford to wait to address this very real threat," Steyer said in a statement. He said the fund would make future grants available to victims of droughts, floods and weather-related oil spills.

He said he was keeping a promise he made last year to donate to wildfire victims all the profits he made from an investment in the oil and gas company Kinder Morgan.

Steyer, who made his fortune in hedge funds, recently pledged to spend up to $100 million in political campaigns this year against Republican candidates for governor and U.S. Senate who deny that climate change is occurring or oppose reductions in carbon emissions. He and Taylor have also contributed $40 million to establish a center for sustainable energy at Stanford University.

Chronicle senior political writer Carla Marinucci contributed to this report.